The Youngest Guardian
by Tilith
Summary: Pitch is out for revenge and starts with the youngest guardian, but instead of making Jack disappear, he turns him into a three year old toddler! Mayhem ensures as the four other guardians have to learn to deal with the mini-mischieve maker and the quirks he's coming with. Hopefully the memories Tooth brings with his teeth will help them understand... Rated T because I may swear.
1. Prologue: Unexpected Visitor

_Heeeyyy mates! I know, there are tons of Rise of the Guardians fanfictions and probably some with similiar idea, but who cares? I'm out to write my own and maybe you'll enjoy it too. Have fun and SMILE! _

**Unexpected Visitor **

Father Time was a very busy spirit, currently scurrying through his vast Tower of Time, checking on the various clocks that floated through the hall freely. Countless jars and flacons adorned the golden wood racks along the walls. Beneath the floating twiggy spirit shone a giant crystal ball on the basement of the tower, enlightening the whole building.

His long thin fingers stroke over the frame of a huge grandfather clock and his eyes, ten times enlarged by his thick glasses, blinked several times, as he felt the puff of cold air ruffling the white remnant horseshoe-shaped fringe of hair which adorned his almost bald head.

Seconds later a smooth, dark voice called: "Good evening, Father Time! Or is it morning where you are looking at?"

"Pitch Black!" the old spirit gasped in his own high pitched, raspy voice. "Weren't you caged by your own fearlings? I got to check upon my time records concerning you…" he added muttering. He turned and floated towards a small hourglass filled with black sand.

Meanwhile the Nightmare King frowned in anger before he managed to compose himself.

"Indeed, my friend; that was a slight foil for me, but however. I am here to correct that. You still have the ability to turn back time and take someone with you, don't you?" he asked casually while checking on his fingernails.

Father Time didn't even flinch at the question, too distracted by the hourglass in front of him, and simply rambled in a distant voice: "Certainly, but you know I can only do this with the permission of the Man in the Moon himself. And I hardly doubt you have one. But why would you want to go back? They would beat you anyways, especially since they have their newest addition to the team: Jack Frost. You can't outshine him, he is really powerful. And he is part of nature. Never mess with Mother Nature. The last one who tried ended burned in the center of the sun and is long time forgotten… Not even she or I remember his name. Or was it a female? Who knows, so I have to decline your request, whatever it may concern, I apologize, so…"

As the old spirit finally turned at his unexpected visitor, Pitch had gone. Father Time shrugged and continued with his business. He was an occupied being after all. It was only weeks later on earth, as the inside of the Tower of Time itself is said to be timeless, as the keeper of history discovered the missing of one of his flacons. But he could never remember what kind of potion it had held and the upcoming events already had been over, as he finally noticed. Not that he would have done anything to prevent what was meant to happen; he was no hero, only a supervisor of events.


	2. Chapter 1: The Beginning of a Revenge

_Heeeyyy mates! Jup, already another part of the story! jup, they are short, but hey, leaves more room for imagination! Sorry, if I don't get the accents right, I' ll write them as good as I can. Enjoy and SMILE!  
_

**Chapter 1: The Beginning of a Revenge **

"He's late. Again!" Bunnymund huffed in annoyance. The four older guardians sat in North's cozy sitting room in front of the chimney in big plushy armchairs for their monthly meeting. Since their win over Pitch four years ago they had held one every twentieth of the month and Jack had been late every single time. Not that he had been irresponsible in his other duties Jack was more responsible since his guardian vows than ever in both of his lifes; he usually just was way too busy to be in time.

Plus it annoyed the Easter Bunny to no end if he was late.

"I'll go check on him. It's January. He probably has overworked himself again and has overslept because of the exhaustion, the poor boy!" Tooth volunteered and left with Baby Tooth and several other mini fairies in her tow.

"Right. That'll probably take hours to find that gumby! I'll be back at noon, mates, just makin' sure this wanderin' mess isn' freezin' over me Warren again…" Bunny groaned and left through his tunnel.

North and Sandy shrugged and silently raised their glasses of eggnog to each other; without a word they had agreed to wait comfortably until the other would return. Sandy could spread his dream sand from the pole and North had more than ten months left until the next Christmas. Since Jack had joined them he had taught them to enjoy their lifes more even if he was taking his job very serious. Still he was the Guardian of Fun, spreading fun was his duty.

* * *

When Tooth and her fairies reached Burgess they were greeted by a fierce snow storm, which worried them. Usually Jack would make sure that snow would fall rather gently upon his hometown. Wind swirled violently around them, but seemed to speed them up as they flew towards the small pond Jack used as home base, as if the wind wanted to bring them there faster. Tooth frowned at the sight of swirls of black sand emerging from their destination and altered her speed despite already being breakneck another notch.

A cry of terror escaped her lips, as they finally arrived. Everywhere laid frozen Nightmares, black dream sand and icicles around the pond, but no sign of any living person. She sent her fairies in different directions and scouted herself through the maze the battle remnants had created. Unsurprisingly it was Baby Tooth who gave a sharp whistle to alert her mother of a trove.

In mere seconds the Toothfairy joined her and saw Baby Tooth and her sisters worriedly whiz around a barely awake Jack Frost who leaned heavy onto his staff, forcing his eyes to open and his lips to grin lopsidedly.

"Hey, Tooth, 's not safe here…" he mumbled, than he passed out. Before he could hit the floor she gathered him in her arms. Without a second thought she flew him back to the pole. The others surely could help, and they needed to know that their enemy seemed to have returned.


	3. Chapter 2: Tackie and Cuddle Bunny

_Heeeyy mates! Jup, another short one! Enjoy and SMILE!  
_

**Chapter 2: „Tackie" and „Cuddle Bunny"**

Bunnymund sped through the tunnel to the Pole for the third time this day – two months before Easter, but never mind – to attain to their meeting again. At least his Warren hadn't been frozen over. It was beyond Asters comprehension why the winter spirit always had to freeze over his dye rivers and lakes every single time he came there.

In fact, the intactness of his home left him in a good enough mood to be prepared for whatever would occur on their meeting. But he didn't know that wasn't prepared to what really would be coming.

The chaos he was met with, as he entered the main door of North's place, was unbelievable even for that place. The elves were aimlessly running around, apparently high on sugar by the look in their eyes, breaking everything they could get a hold on. Meanwhile the Yetis tried to either capture them or protect the toys they had worked on. North and the other guardians were nowhere to be seen.

Bunnymund's mouth fell agape at the sight, but his surprised complexion soon enough made room for an angered one.

"Frost!" he growled lowly and took in the scent of the youngest guardian. If there was such a mess, he had to be close.

Finally he had tracked it down to North's office, which he entered in a haze, but he froze in the entrance. Why was there a strange surprise every time he got through a door at the Pole?

He couldn't spot Jack anywhere, but North was on his knees, peeking under his working table and spoke in a reassuring, surprisingly soft voice.

"Come out, boy! I am not going za hurrt you!"

Startled, Bunnymund registered that only a frightened, high pitched whine responded the jolly man. The Jack Frost he knew doesn't whine in such manner, ever, so who was hiding under there?

"Um, North?" he coughed insecurely.

"Aster! Good you arre heerr, we have prroblem! Pitch attacked Jack and now Jack iz shrrunk. And afraid of big man wit za bearrds, we zink…" North boomed, causing another whimper from under the table.

"Wait, what?" the pooka stammered. Pitch was back? And Jack was shrunken?!

"Come overr heerr! Maybe you arre morre lucky!" the huge Russian said while getting up.

In a few steps he had reached Bunnymund and dragged the startled guardian over. They exchanged a look, before North left.

After he took a deep breath, Aster lowered himself cautiously on his knees and peeked under the working table.

There he was, the mischievous spirit of winter himself, but definitely smaller than before. He was curled up in a ball, big blue eyes widely looked at the pooka, as if his fear was already disappearing.

"Hey there, lil' ankle-biter! Why don't cha come outta there?" Bunnymund asked softly with a tiny smile. He couldn't resist children, even when they usually were rather annoying teen winter spirits.

In a whim the scared child jumped onto the surprised Easter Bunny, shouting: "Cuddle Bunny!"

"Woah, woah, easy, mate! Slow it! All's fine!" he tried to calm the toddler. If Jack just had been shrunken, why would he hide from North and cuddle Bunnymund of all of the people? Something was really off here.

"Me name's not mate! Me's Tackie!" the boy beamed, happily holding onto the pooka.

"Okay, now ya freakin' me out, mate!" he replied.

"No, it's Tackie!" the smaller giggled.

Bunnymund sighed. "Alright, Jackie. Ya know what's goin' on here?"

Jack leaned closer and whispered confidently : "Tackie gave elvies cookies, but he s'ouldn't, and elvies got c'azy and big bea'dy man got loud, so Tackie got sca'ed and hid unda da table. Big bea'dy mans a'e sca'y, don'tsa sink, Bunny?"

Bunnymund almost had to laugh at the behavior of the boy, but first he had to make sure he had understood everything right.

"Okay, Jackie, let's put this straight: Ya gave da elves cookies and North yelled at ya for it, right?"

Jack lowered his head. "Cuddle Bunny' s mad at Tackie, too?"

"Nah, 's alright. Just don' do it again, alright?" Bunnymund simply couldn't stay his usual grumpy with children around. "Come on, let's look fer North, I need ter talk ta him 'bout yelling at kids."

The small boy giggled and cuddled more into the pookas soft fur. Apparently he wouldn't let go anytime soon.


	4. Chapter3:Against the hunger of the elves

_Heeyyy mates! Here comes the next one! Maybe I should change the category in humor, with all the sillyness I am writing. Whatever, enjoy and SMILE!  
_

**Chapter 3: Against the hunger of the elves**

Bunnymund walked down the corridor to the globe room where he expected to meet North, carrying Toddler Jack on his arms. He certainly had tried to convince the boy to walk on his own, but he had looked at him with those huge blue puppy dog eyes and whispered: "What if big bea'dy man's still ang'y at Tackie?"

Who was he to refuse a scared child shelter? So the pooka had sighed and got up while he cuddled Jack closer. Hopefully North would explain him a few things after apologizing for yelling at the poor little bloke.

Sure, they had become friends, Bunnymund and Jack, but still bickered with each other as soon as they met and their usual skin contact happened rather roughly, so there was no sensible reason why the winter spirit would hold as desperately onto the Easter Bunny as he currently did. And prefer him over North to do this who usually hugged Jack whenever he got a chance to.

"Ah, Bunny, Jack! Derre you arre!" North boomed as they came in sight. Immediately Jack tried to hide himself in Bunnymunds fur.

"Oi North! Keep it down, will ya? No wonder da ankle-biter is scared! And you had ta yell at him for da mess he accidentally made?" the pooka scolded while rubbing the toddlers back soothingly.

North frowned: "I alwayz speak loud, Jack was neverr scarred, wherre is prroblem sudden of all? And he knowz not to feed elvez cookies!"

"Mate, in case ya haven' noticed: this isn' da Jack we know! Ya can't expect him ta know da same things!" At his stern words Jack had tightened his grasp on Bunnymunds fur and accidentally frozen some of the strains causing him to shiver. Apparently the boy still had his powers, which was a good sign.

"Vat should I do den?" the Guardian of wonder asked in exasperation, spreading his arms widely as if he tried to grasp an answer out of thin air.

Bunnymund smiled. "We could try ta ask him."

He turned his head towards the child and questioned softly: "Hey, Jackie, why did ya give the elves cookies?"

The boy slowly raised his head and glanced at the Easter Bunny.

"Da elvies we'e hung'y, so Tackie gave dem food…" he replied hesitantly.

"Da elves arre always hungrry! You can not give zem cookies! Look how dey almost destroyed da Pole!" North argued.

"Mean big bea'dy man! Sta'ving elvies! No one s'ould be hung'y!" the toddler pouted with crossed arms.

Bunnymund rubbed the bridge of his nose. He'd probably would get a headache around those two stubborn mules.

"Alright, maybe we could feed da elves something less sugary, like carrots, so no one has ta starve and no one's workshop goes in ruins. Deal?"

Both opponents nodded grudgingly, then North's face split into a full grin.

"Soo, Jack, you want to feed da elves?" he grinned.

The boy glanced up at his furry companion and agreed as he had nodded and set him down. After North had supplied him with different vegetable bits, Jack ran off to where the yetis had caged the elves after their sugar-high outburst, close to the globe itself.

The older two guardians looked after the winter child, smiling fondly for a moment, then Bunnymund turned, one eye constantly surveying the toddler.

"Alright, now tell me what happened while I was at da Warren, North."

They sat down on armchairs close to the globes while North recited the events from the past hours: How Tooth had found Jack in the middle of a battlefield which had Pitch already escaped before her arrival, how she had brought the exhausted teen to the pole, how he had started to shrink during the flight, how Sandy had immediately left to look for their foe, how Jack had woken in Tooth's and North's care, how he had called her "Bi'dy" and hugged her, the fairies, the yetis and every elf he could find fondly, how Jack had been scared from North from the start, how Tooth had gone to the Tooth Place looking for Jack's childhood memories and how Jack had initiated the chaos Bunnymund had been met with as he had arrived.

"But why had Tooth left him with ya if she knew he was scared of ya?" the pooka wondered.

"Jack indeed had acted verry strrangely, so Tooth thought dat maybe some answerrs could be found in da memorries of ourr frriend. We'll see, I guess."

"I hope so, mate. Darn, I wonder why da heck he's callin' me 'Cuddle Bunny'…"

The comment left North snickering. They went silent in their wait of the return of the other two and contently watched toddler Jack feed the elves carrot sticks, cucumber slices and bell pepper pieces. Evidently it had been a good idea to feed them vegetables. After a few bites they sat down patiently and waited for their turn to get another serving, bowing at the small spirit for every bit, evoking a bell-like laughter from him. Who knew how peaceful an amused Jack could be.


End file.
